


Through Hell And Back

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Demons, F/M, Fix-It, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Hell, Humor, Illusions, Implied Sexual Content, Male-Female Friendship, Older Man/Younger Woman, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, St. Agnes Orphanage, daisy is the greatest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-25 21:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Daisy makes her own deal with the Ghost Rider to get Coulson back.Written for #cousyfixit, ghost/afterlife prompt





	Through Hell And Back

It sounded perfectly reasonable at the time.

"If Coulson can make a deal with the Ghost Rider, so can I."

She said it out loud to them before she left. Despite Mack and Elena's protests.

Mack insisting that her powers weren't going to work against forces like that, and to be fair, he'd had first-hand experience.

He was looking out for her, but she knew. She grew up Catholic, after all. 

Just like she already knew she wouldn't need her powers for this.

It would have to come from someplace even deeper.

It's just that now when she's actually about to go and do it, it turns out that she didn't even think about what he might ask for in return.

"Mephisto," she says aloud. It's a...what? A demon? Like the one inside you?"

"The demon above all demons," Robbie tells her, his jaw tensing, then he gets quiet again.

"Cool," she says, looking away like someone might overhear them in this alley behind the burger joint. "So, why Coulson?"

"It's the butterfly effect," he tells her, shifting nervously. "One thing that sets other things in motion."

"So is your guy in trouble with this other guy?" she asks and watches Robbie wince. "He's got dirt on flame head, doesn't he?"

"He," he starts, lowering his voice. "He's been made to serve him. Cramps his style."

Robbie's head jerks and Daisy can already see the demon trying to take over, Robbie fighting for control.

"Revenge it is," Daisy says, putting her hand on Robbie's shoulder. "You don't have to fight it. I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" he asks her in a strained voice. "It's a terrible place. You'll be tested. Every step of the way."

"I figured that's how it worked. Devil's bargain, right? How do I stop him?"

She steps away when Robbie's head bursts into flame, burning away his skin so fast she barely has time to blink.

And then it's just her and the Ghost Rider in a staring match.

  
####

  
Not that she had expectations, but it's not really hot?

Hot would be better. Instead, it's damp and looks a lot like St. Agnes.

It _is_ St. Agnes, and she brings her arms around herself in a hug as she walks through the empty halls.

It's like she remembers, but something is just not quite right. For one, there are no people.

Just as she thinks this, she sees a nun's habit walk past a doorway in the long hall.

"Hey!" she yells after it and starts to run down the hall. A little reckless, but she wants to get out of here if she can.

Find out where Coulson is.

Complete her promise to the Ghost Rider.

Instead, she stops in the doorway as she sees a small girl, facing a corner of the wall, shoulders shaking.

"That's not creepy or anything," she whispers out loud to herself, as she walks towards the wall.

The child turns around and looks up at her with tear-filled eyes, and almost screams then covers her mouth with both hands.

"It's okay," Daisy reassures her, crouching down. "I won't hurt you. What's your name? Mine's Daisy."

She slowly lowers her hands and manages to tell her in a trembling voice. "Daisy?" she asks, like she's confused, "Mara. I thought you were a nun."

"Nope," Daisy says with a smile. "They can be pretty scary, though. What are you doing here all alone?"

"I've been hiding. Will you stay with me?" she asks, tilting her head.

"I'm looking for someone," Daisy tells her. "Do you want to come with me? Show me how to get out of this place?"

"You're going to leave us," the child replies, her face twisting, as Daisy protectively reaches out for her when she hears movement in the wall behind them.

"They're all still here," the girl chokes out. "Where you left them."

The wall starts to move behind her, as though faces and hands and bodies are trapped behind the walls, trying to get out.

"No," Daisy says, shaking her head. "It's not true. I just wanted to find out where I came from."

Falling back to the floor, scooting backward, she feels her back hit something and spins.

It's the Mother Superior, looking down at her with her sharp-eyed stare. "Into the wall with all the others!"

"No!" Daisy tells her, stretching out her hand instinctively. Her powers don't work here. "Mara, let's go!"

She grabs the little girl and runs towards the window, but the little girl twists out of her grip and turns on her in a fury.

"You can't run away this time, Mary Sue Poots!" she yells. "There's nowhere left to run!"

Daisy looks up and sees that she's right. All the doors are gone now. It's just the window behind her.

She backs away and runs through it, crashing, and falling.

Falling.

  
###

  
She wakes up with the sound of a breeze rushing across treetops, and a familiar scent, she can't quite place it, but it's sunny.

She can feel it on her face.

"It's a good thing we found you," the pleasant voice says. "You had a nasty fall."

Her eyes open and she is looking out a large open window framing the mountains outside.

"Where am I now?" she asks, squinting against the pain of her clenched jaw. "Is this another test, you psycho?"

"I've been called a lot of things," the woman laughs. "That's not one of them."

Daisy almost doesn't want to look, because she already knows. It's her mother.

She peers up at her and sees her smiling, without any scars on her face, her hair in a loose braid and she looks somehow younger than she remembers.

"I'm Jiaying. And this is a place for special people, like you."

Daisy swings around to get her feet off the bed and then tries to stand as her mother moves to steady her.

"This isn't real," Daisy says, as the woman's hands lift her up all the way to her feet.

"When you've lived as long as I have, you begin to get funny ideas about what's real and what isn't. Daisy!" she calls over her shoulder.

Her mouth falls open as she sees herself come through the door, holding a tray with a teapot and cup on it.

She has long hair, done up in a braid, with flowers in it, in a flowing tunic with Chinese characters over it.

"Our guest is probably thirsty. Maybe you can take her to visit Lincoln later? He's our doctor," she explains.

"Hey mom," she says, setting the tray down. "Why don't you introduce me first?"

"Oh, where are my manners," Jiaying says. "What _is_ your name?"

"Quake," Daisy answers flatly, looking between the women.

"Quake? I think you just told me what your gift is. How long have you been on your own?" she asks with a sigh of concern.

"I'm trying to find someone I lost," she tells her, swallowing when she sees motion near the window.

"How are my best girls?" Cal asks, smiling widely and leaning in through the window. "Dinner is almost ready!"

"Do you want to join us?" the other Daisy asks her. "We always have room for one more."

The thing is, yes, she does. Even when she knows that this is not real. But it feels so real. A life she wanted.

It makes her panic a little, that deep down, when she finds Coulson, what if he's "not real" like this?

What if he's different? Some half-truth from a corner of her mind.

"I just need to find my way out of here," she tells Jiaying, ignoring the others.

"Afterlife is very isolated," Jiaying replies. "We won't have a way out for weeks, at-"

"Gordon," she interrupts her. "Yeah, I know."

"How do you know about Gordon?" Jiaying says, backing away from her. "Have you been here before?"

"It's complicated," she answers, checking the distance to the door, Jiaying in between. "And I-I'm not staying for dinner."

"Are you a spy?" she asks her, taken aback. "Are you SHIELD? Are you trying to get us all killed?!"

She starts to strike, but it's too late, their Daisy pushes her into the wall with a burst of power, and she hits it, hard.

"Don't ever threaten my family," she hears herself say before she blacks out.

  
###

  
Groaning, she feels the dryness in her mouth.

It's hot and she notices that she is shackled at the ankle to a stone wall.

There is something large in the corridor beyond, moving, and she gets to her feet and holds onto the bars to try to get a look when there is a sudden burst of crackling energy.

It's faint blue light makes her heart stop in her chest for a moment, when there is chaos, people running loose.

Then a face in front of hers, staring back at her. "Daisy?"

"Lincoln," she whispers, blinking over at him. "How-"

"Stand back," he tells her, and then pulls out a set of keys and unlocks the door of her cell that swings inward, then bends to unlock her shackles.

When he's done, she turns an elbow into his stomach and takes him to the ground and then runs for the exit of the cell.

"Hey!" he yells after her. "You're welcome!"

She doesn't listen to him and pushes through the prison break, looking at faces, seeing if there is anything familiar about this.

When they were in the Framework she was in a cell, but it wasn't this primitive.

"Daisy!"

Lincoln catches up to her as they move through the crowd towards the cavern beyond it, red flames leaping against the walls.

"That's very literal," Daisy says, finally turning to look at him as he stands at her side.

"You don't belong here," he tells her painfully. "What are you doing here?"

"None of this is real!" Daisy tells him again. "Where can I find him? Mephisto."

" _Shhh_ ," he tells her. "Don't mention him by name. Why in the Hell would you want to find him? He's responsible for all this!"

"You're not supposed to be here," he repeats. "Something has happened. Something...big."

"You're not supposed to be here, either!" she tells him. "You...you died saving me."

"I made a choice," he says with a fond smile. "I still don't regret it. But there are rules about that kind of stuff."

"Then you'll help me. To find him?" she asks.

"Of course I'll help you. And you don't find him, he finds you," he says, starting to head off as she follows. "How did you get here anyway?"

"I'm not talking about him. Coulson, I'm looking for Coulson."

Lincoln sighs and stops, looks away for a moment. "Is it too late to change my mind?"

He leads the way again, and she tells him about the Ghost Rider and his deal with Coulson.

And how Coulson died because she had to stop the world from ending.

About how he was her everything.

 

###

  
They climb, and she wonders if it's another mental trick, how the stairs seem to go on for forever.

Lincoln assures her it is when she mentions it. That it's to get you to an almost breaking point.

"He likes that sort of thing," he tells her. "To see what you're made of. I think he's pretty bored because most of the people that end up here aren't made of much."

"Are there any parts of it that are real?" she asks him, trudging upwards.

"All of it," he says. "It is what you make of it."

"That's a fantasy," she replies, stopping, frustrated. "That's not real. How do I even know that _you're_ real?"

"Because I'm helping you, for one," he tells her. "I brought you to exactly where you wanted to be."

She can tell by his expression that something is behind her. She takes slow, short breaths, and turns around.

"Well, hello, Skye."

It's Ward, and instincts kick in and she hauls back and punches him in the face, as he stumbles backward.

"I thought you'd appreciate a familiar face?" he asks, rubbing at the blood beneath his nose.

"Why don't you come closer and I'll show you just how much I appreciate it?" she tells him with clenched teeth.

"Fiery. He'll like that. I told him all about you and your particular obsession with me. Shall we?"

He turns around and pushes open the large tall carved doors with twisted human shapes and they swing wide open to reveal a hallway.

Lincoln looks disturbed, but Daisy turns and walks forward following after Ward.

"You can't trust him," Lincoln tells her in a whisper, finally coming up beside her.

"Stopped a long time ago," she says as they finally reach the chamber at the end. A throne room with a figure in a red suit sitting in the elaborate chair on top of the dais.

"You're not Coulson" she says threateningly, starting to move towards him. "Where is he?"

"Hmm," he replies to her, looking at his nails, then over at Ward. "You said she was sassy, not plain rude." She watches him stand and then snap his fingers. "Any you! I thought I told you to find out how she got in here?"

Daisy hears Lincoln double over to the ground in pain, groaning and twisting on the stone floor.

"Leave him alone!" Daisy says.

"Even though you don't think he's real?" the man who looks like Coulson asks, slowly coming down each step.

"He-" she says, staring down at him, feeling her stomach twist as though she's reliving his death again. "He tried to help me."

"How about we make a deal?" he says, circling her, and glancing at Ward out of the corner of his eye.

"You can leave now, and take him with you."

"You're afraid of me being here," she says, lifting her chin. "Why?"

"I've had some jailbreaks lately," he sighs. "Minor demons getting in and out. Challenging my authority. I think it's in everyone's interests to keep them here, don't you?"

"I guess you're not all-powerful after all."

"All powerful?" he asks, daring to laugh with Coulson's voice. "I'm bored. Everyone down here is like him," he sneers, looking over at Ward.

Ward expression hardens, but he doesn't budge, just turns a cold look on Daisy.

"Stop hurting him!" she yells, grabbing his arm, and watching him smile at Lincoln twisting on the ground.

"So kind, and soft. It's delightful!" he snaps his fingers and the groaning stops. "Sure you won't change your mind?"

She looks on the ground where Lincoln was and sees a small blue chubby thing with horns and wings looking up at her with a grateful face.

"It _is_ true, he was trying to help you," Mephisto says, snapping his fingers again as the small demon disappears. "Pathetic."

"Stop wearing his face. Where is Coulson?" she asks again, clenching her fists.

"Told you she was obsessed," Ward adds with a leering grin.

  
###

  
"I like Coulson," the demon tells her, wearing his real face now. "He's very sweet. I can barely stomach what you see in him. Absolutely fascinating."

"That makes two of us," Ward says with a roll of his eyes.

"And I liked the Tim Curry version of you better," she tells him in a mocking tone, crossing her arms.

"Really? I can look like anything you want me to," he tells her, scratching his pointed chin with a clawed finger. "I was just experimenting with being more...transparent."

"If that's what you really wanted, then why the illusion sideshow?"

"Decorum. It's just how it's done. And I wanted to see if you were very interesting," he tells her, leaning forward from his throne. "The boring ones are all 'Nazi' this and 'I like beer' that."

"HYDRA is not Nazis," Ward complains, pursing his lips, as Mephisto snaps his fingers and sends him away in a puff of smoke.

:"See what I mean?"

"The Ghost Rider said that you would test me," Daisy goes on.

"That's not his name. That's what he lets the host call him. I gave him his real name."

"So what is it?" she asks pacing along the stairs as she can feel his eyes follow her.

"First, let's talk about what you really came here for," he tells her, and snaps his talons once again.

She can see Coulson, who looks like he's sleeping peacefully, but in another place, like she's only getting to peek in at him.

And she can feel her heart racing in her chest because maybe it's an illusion just like everything else?

A place filled with lies.

"Let me talk to him," she tells him, taking several steps closer to the image of Coulson.

"I like him like this," he says, standing to admire the image with her. "He dreams like this. He dreams of saving Inhumans. And stopping the Kree. He dreams about saving the world. And always, in every dream, there is you. And some red car."

She remembers him saying that he could never imagine a world without her in it, and feels tears start to fill her eyes.

"I wanted to see if you were anything like what he dreams of. Humans love their lies."

"I love _him_ ," she tells him. "What do you want from me?" she swallows, burying her tears.

" A trade," he says with a slow smile. "You. For him."

"And how do I know that any of this is real?" she asks, shaking her head. "That it's really Coulson and not one of your poor, tormented-"

"Now you're feeling sorry for demons?" he laughs. "Oh, I'll show you whatever you want to see. I'm so amused!"

"No wonder Zarathanos wanted out," she shouts at him. "Nothing here is real. You rule over nothing that means _anything_ -"

"You're mixing them up!" he says, turning on her, eyes flashing. "Zarathos is the pathetic lesser demon. Thanos is the dangerous one, and even he will meet me! Soon, yes very soon, and he will bow before-"

He pauses at her smug expression.

"You just gave him his name back. Thanks for that."

"Oh, Hell's bells!"

  
###

  
"I should've let you make the deal, to begin with."

"You really should have."

"Uh," he starts, lowering his eyes, as he pulls on the t-shirt, hand resting over his heart where there is no longer a scar.

"I know I said some things before we parted ways. I was trying to make it easier," he continues. "So you wouldn't have to watch me-"

"We just ran out of time," she says, quietly, her back turned to him, and feels his hand reach out to touch her shoulder.

"It felt like I was fighting fate. I don't know if that makes sense. And I wanted you to be able to go on, no matter what happened."

"I did go on," she sighs and looks up at him. "But it was always there. I could still feel you like we were connected? That's why I reached out to Robbie."

"It was this Zarathanos guy's plan all along? So that you would free him from Tim Curry as the Devil?"

"I _really_ don't recommend using their names," she tells him, and hands over the jeans from the overnight bag to him.

"Sorry you saw me just reappear in my most natural state," he says self-deprecatingly, with a heavy sigh and starts to pull the jeans on.

"Yeah, it turns out that you are, um, highly motivating. For me," she tells him, flicking her eyes over at him, as he pauses and stares back at her.

"What was the thing that Ghost Rider said?" he asks, yanking the jeans up over his boxers. "That we were tethered, or-"

"It's complicated? The GH-325 formed a chemical bond, at the genetic level, but then something else made it....stronger."

"Kree, engineering, or-" he asks, blinking down at her.

"He said that you dreamed of me," she says, standing up and walking towards the motel room's window. "Saving the world. Over and over again."

"I guess it turns out that you are highly motivating. For me."

She stops fiddling with the curtains and turns back around to see him still standing apart from her.

"It was my choice to come back this time," he reminds her, touching his left hand where the prosthetic used to be. "Thank you for that."

"I always wanted that," she tells him softly. "For you to be able to choose. And now, the GH-325. You're free."

He tilts his head and looks at her curiously like he's working something out in his head.

Then he walks towards her until he's standing beside her.

"Is it?" he asks, searching her eyes. "Or was it always something more?"

She reaches between them, and takes his left hand in hers, lets her fingers trace along his knuckles up to his wrist, then looks back up at him.

"Maybe we should try to find out?"

 

###

  
He was right. Coulson is sweet.

But probably not in the way she means it right now, with his lips still parted as she leaves a kiss behind.

His fingers twisting in the motel sheets, before he pulls off the t-shirt.

To get back to the natural state he arrived in.

Her gaze is a lot less innocent, to be honest.

But it's also a side of Coulson that she's never seen before.

Not an illusion, or a fantasy.

Something real that she can hold on to.

Someone who is holding on right back.


End file.
